Egypt Building Wall Near Gaza Strip's City of Rafah

A wall commissioned by the Egyptian army is being constructed on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip near the latter's city of Rafah, which is the target of a planned Israeli ground offensive, the New York Times reported on Friday, having analyzed satellite images and videos and citing construction workers.

The images and videos show that a large area in the buffer zone between Egypt and Rafah, just south of the Rafah border crossing, is being cleared by bulldozers, the newspaper reported, adding that the work on the site had been launched on February 5.

An unnamed contractor and a construction worker confirmed to the media outlet that the Egyptian army had commissioned them to build a 16-foot concrete wall to close off a patch of land of 1.93 square miles.